Eren munched down his cereal, reaching for the remote and turning the kitchen TV on. When he was greeted with his own smiling face staring back at him on the screen, he almost choked on his cornflakes.

That would be one for the newspapers. World famous scientist killed by his breakfast.

Taking a drink of his coffee, he turned his attention back to the TV screen. Of course, it was a broadcast about the merman. A child would have guessed that; since their discovery, the scientists from the Shiganshina Marine Research Lab had exploded over the media. And of course, they were only ever talking about the merman.

It was a news piece playing on the TV. He could hear the reporter's voiceover while clips from their press conference were shown. And then the reporter stopped speaking, and the audio from the clip came in.

"I think the biggest question we all have is how did you find it?"

Hanji sat in the middle with their arms crossed. "Eren was the first to spot it, d'you wanna take this question?"

He watched himself shift uncomfortably on screen, cringing at his awkwardness. Eren had no problem speaking to a crowd, but when twenty cameras and microphones were shoved in his face, he never knew where to look. At least by now, he was a little more relaxed around them.

"It was really just luck," he admitted. "We were in the right place at the right time. After the storm on Thursday evening, we went out in the boat. A lot of times after storms, animals can be injured, or they can wash over in places they usually wouldn't be. And the weather had been really bad the week before; we were hoping to come across something that wouldn't usually be in the area."

"I bet you got more than you bargained for."

TV Eren laughed. "Yeah! I looked overboard into the water, and I saw it floating a few feet underneath the water. It was…sleeping, I think? Or knocked out, Hanji noticed it had a head wound later. I called the others over, and after the initial shock, we got out the nets to capture it."

Eren grimaced as he ate another spoonful. If he remembered correctly, the next question had been a tricky one.

"Is it true that you used a tranquilizer dart to sedate it?"

He watched with a frown as the TV Eren hesitated, trying to think of an answer. You always had to be careful around areas like this; a wrong word and you would have animal rights activists yelling at you from every corner. A drama like that would more than likely stop the flow of financial funding that had suddenly come flooding in, Nile had warned him before the conference. Of course, Eren hated that thought anyway; he never would hurt an animal unless absolutely necessary, or for its own good.

In the end, Hanji took the question. "During the capture, it woke up and began struggling. At this point, we could see that it was already severely injured, and we feared that if it continued to struggle, it would only do more harm than good. We did sedate it, yes, but that was to protect it."

The audience hummed with quiet talk at the answer, and the reporter's voice cut in again, just as the TV screen went blank.

"That must be the fifth time you've watched that press conference," said Mikasa, putting the remote back on the counter. "I don't understand why you keep watching it."

Eren grinned. "Good morning to you, too, Mikasa." Mikasa rolled her eyes, grabbing a bowl and the box of cornflakes.

"I don't know, it's weird, I guess. I mean, all of a sudden the world is talking about us, and everywhere you look there's a story about us."

Mikasa nodded. "That's good, though, isn't it? I mean, everyone and their grandma knows your name now. And no offense, but there aren't many marine biologists like that."

"Mm, I guess so. Like, I am really glad about the whole thing, y'know? We've made a huge discovery, and now we've much more funding than we had, and we're going to have our damn careers cut out for us studying these now, but. I don't know. I just don't like going to the lab and having cameras and microphones shoved into my face."

Mikasa raised an eyebrow. "Eren," she said. "I don't think you realize how big this is. I mean, nearly everyone has grown up hearing about mermaids. But nobody ever really thought that they existed. And you guys proved they did. At first everyone thought it was just another hoax, but it wasn't. You've proven that mermaids exist. That's like, I don't know, capturing a dragon and proving to the world that dragons exist."

Eren snorted. "I think you've been watching too much Game of Thrones, Mikasa."

"Oh shut up, you like it way more than I do. Point is, that this is huge. People are bound to be excited."

"Yeah. I guess."

The problem was that Eren was worried. They had been under scrutiny for the last week. Labs all over the country wanted to study their merman now, but at the moment, they were allowed study him alone. Rival groups were all waiting for them to slip up, waiting for a chance to steal the opportunity away from them. And there was more, too; the sea was crawling with boats these days, around the area where Eren had spotted him first, all hoping to catch their own. It was disrupting the normal sea life, something none of them were happy about.

Still. One day at a time.

"Hey, Jäger, hurry up and finish your gross dry cereal before you're late for work."

"Alright, mom."

Mikasa rolled her eyes, but she was smiling too. She was a cop working at the local station now, and while some people might laugh at him for still living with his sister at twenty-six years of age, he wouldn't have it any other way.

"Later, sis."

"Later, Eren. Don't let the merman bite."

"Shut up."

"Hey, Armin."

"Eren! Hey! Guess what – our boy is stirring."

"What, really?"

"Mmhmm." The blond nodded enthusiastically, dropping a book on Eren's desk. "I mean, those were some nasty injuries he got. He's barely moved since we got him, but Hanji has more or less treated his wounds. When I came in, you should have seen them – they were so excited. He was twitching and moving a little, and they think he might wake up!"

"About time – everyone's been pressing for details since we caught him. Remind me again why we didn't wake up sleeping beauty before?"

His childhood friend whacked the back of his head. "You know why – he wasn't asleep, he was unconscious. Besides, Hanji doesn't want to do too much without trying to communicate with it first."

Eren was not a patient person. He had been dying to get to work on the merman for the last week. "Why?" he whined. "If they could fucking communicate with humans, don't you think they would have done it in the past?"

"Maybe they did." Armin gave a shrug. "In history there have always been sailors who spoke about encounters with mermaids before. That's how the myths began, after all."

"Yeah, but, if they spoke to sailors hundreds of years ago, how come they haven't spoken to humans since?" Eren asked with a frown.

Armin gave a shrug of his shoulders. "I dunno. Maybe something happened? Maybe they decided they didn't like humans anymore. But he speaks, if he can communicate with us, that'll make things so much easier!"

They were interrupted by Hanji, who practically bounced into the room.

"Morning, boys!" they said, moving to perch on Eren's desk. They were followed by Nile, who as per usual for this time of the morning looked half asleep.

"Okay, so here's the plan." Hanji clapped their hands together, eyes flickering between the three of them. "As usual, Nile is going to be the research leader, but for this morning I'm in charge, because I'm the only one who has examined our guest so far."

"He's not our guest," Nile grumbled in the corner.

Nile Dawk was the oldest out of the four of them. He had a strange personality; sometimes Eren enjoyed his company and sometimes he wished for nothing more than to break his damn nose. Although he was good at what he did, he tended to look at things from purely a scientific point of view. Sometimes, Eren just couldn't agree with his methods.

Hanji, on the other hand, was his polar opposite. Although they were outstanding in their field, they always put the safety and interests of the animals they were studying first. They were always bright eyed and bushy tailed, so to speak, and seemed to bound about the lab bursting with energy, no matter what.

Armin was the other person in the room, and Eren had known him since they were kids. He was a genius, basically; their professors in college had often said that if he got some experience, and gave it a few years, that he would go far in the field. As well as being a natural genius, Armin always had a thirst for knowledge and a love of the ocean.

Eren meanwhile? He was here because he adored the ocean, and everything in it. Eren wasn't a patient person, and he had no time for a lot of things, but he had always loved learning about the ocean and what was in it. Probably why he ended up becoming a marine biologist in the first place – his mother had always encouraged him to do what he loved, when he could.

The Shiganshina Marine Research Lab wasn't huge by any stretch of the imagination. The four of them accounted for the ichthyologists and marine mammalogists. Usually they were so busy that Eren didn't see much of the scientists working in the other fields. He didn't mind too much, though; with the exception of Nile, he got along great with his co-workers.

"So, the main thing I want to go over before we go in is safety," Hanji began. "We saw him struggle on the day of the capture; he can definitely move fast, and he was definitely scared then. When he wakes up, there's no telling how he'll react, and he could be dangerous."

"It's a fish in a tank," Nile cut in. "I doubt he's all that dangerous."

Hanji rolled their eyes. "I disagree, Nile. I helped patch up some of his injuries; I got a close up of his body. His teeth and nails are way sharper than a human's. I wouldn't be surprised if they used them to hunt. Their skeletal structure is different too; their shoulders and elbows are far sharper. Ever been elbowed in the face before? Imagine that, four times as bad. And he's fast."

"How do you know he's fast?" Eren piped up. "I mean, we only saw him conscious for a few minutes, and he didn't exactly do a lot of moving during that time."

Hanji gave him a smile, their eyes beginning to light up. Well, they always were enthusiastic, in any case. "Again, his skeletal structure is fascinating! It's very similar to a human's, but different in subtle ways. His upper body doesn't have that much muscle; in fact, he's quite thin around the shoulder area. Instead, his whole upper body is…streamlined, almost; he's made to be a fast swimmer. And his tail…it has a lot of power in it, I'd say. There's definitely enough muscle there to make up for the lack of it in his upper body! It'd say it's the propeller force that allows them to swim quickly. I'd love to get a scan of his muscular structure, but I've been too afraid to do anything extreme just yet, in ca-"

"Hanji," Nile interrupted. "Did you find out what his injuries were from?"

The excited expression on their face faltered. "I have my suspicions," was all they said.

"Anyway – this morning we'll try and keep it simple. No doubt it's very frightened; and at the moment it's still quite weak. But keep your guard up, don't underestimate it. Today, we're just going to try and communicate with it. Any questions? Nope? Then let's go!"

They filtered into the next room, nicknamed the tank room, by Hanji. It was as the name might suggest; filled with tanks. Tanks which usually housed a number of sea creatures. The other room was kept to keep the things they couldn't risk getting wet; files, books, computers, personal belongings.

The merman was in the tank at the far back. It was the largest tank they had. It still wasn't huge, but now that they had more funding, Hanji was trying to persuade Nile to get a bigger one installed.

The top of the tank could be opened or closed, depending on what creature lay inside. The lid was divided almost like quarters, so you could have it partially opened, instead of opening the whole thing.

He was lying at the bottom of the tank, tail curled up around him. It was sleek and powerful, with grey-green scales running up the length of it. Pale skin turned into scales around the place where a human bellybutton would be, and ran down the length of the tail until the fin at the bottom of it.

He was far from the Little Mermaid, Eren could see. Even from here he could notice the small differences in the skeletal structure of his upper body; Hanji was right; he was more streamlined, formed differently than humans were. His neck was a little longer than the average humans, and there were gills set into it. The markings were strange, too; black and gold patterns crisscrossed up his arms and across the top of his chest. In some place there were swirls and whorls that looked like something from a Celtic pattern, in other they almost looked like a made up language.

The hair was a bit of a surprise, too. It floated around his head, partially obscuring his face from view. "I thought mermaids had long hair," Eren commented. "His looks like a damn undercut, or something."

"This isn't Disney," Armin muttered beside him.

And of course, it was impossible to miss the jagged cuts along one of his shoulders and along one side of his body. Hanji and done their best to stitch them up, but they had been afraid of doing anything extreme.

He had been in here before, he had seen the merman plenty of times, but he had always been still; lying almost motionlessly. Now he was stirring and shifting, making little movements and twitching. At one point, his entire tail flicked out, and Eren was taken aback by the amount of grace in a single movement.

Hanji typed in the passcode, and opened one of the four lids on the tank, sliding it back. They climbed down again, typed in a different passcode and fiddled with one of the dials set into the control pad. "I'm changing the temperature," they said. "It might help him wake up a little quicker.

They climbed back up the steps on the side of the tank, letting them look in from above. Nile joined them, but Eren and Armin stayed where they were.

After a moment or two, the merman's eyes opened.

Once. Blink. Twice. Another blink. Third time.

They snapped open, wide, and he moved quickly, immediately off of the floor of the tank.

His eyes were different too, Eren noticed. The pupils were much bigger than humans, although he could still see a hazel iris around it.

He stared through the glass right back at Eren, gaze flitting like a cornered animals to Armin, and then to Hanji and Nile, before repeating.

It flicked its tail, and it moved quickly through the water, trying to put as much space between them as it could before his back hit the glass. That seemed to frighten him even more, and he whirled around, hands coming up to push at it like he didn't think it was real.

Eren pitied him, a little.

"Sssh," Hanji whispered, making comforting noises as they raised their palms. "It's alright; we're not here to hurt you."

He opened his mouth, and let out a strange hissing noise, almost like a cats. Eren was surprised they could hear it through the water. He caught sight of sharp teeth and a pointed tongue.

Nile crouched down beside the edge of the tank. "Stop that," he said, using a sterner voice. He raised his own hands. "We're not here to hurt you."

This seemed to infuriate him even more. With a powerful flick of his tail, he darted to the other side of the tank, coming up until his head broke the surface. He was as far away from Nile and Hanji as he could get while still above the surface.

His hair was plastered to his forehead, his eyes were narrowed and face set into a snarl. He opened his mouth and hissed again, the sound much louder than before. It was like running nails across a chalkboard; the sound was irritating and sent shivers running down Eren's spine.

"Listen," Nile said slowly. Eren wondered if their attempts were futile; he looked like a human, his top half, at least, but it didn't mean he could understand them. "We don't mean any harm. We just want to learn – learn. We're not going to hurt you, okay?"

He slowly extended his arm, palm out, as if offering a handshake. The merman's eyes focused on the hand, his expression softening slightly and to Eren's disbelief he began to raise his own out of the water. He was moving it slowly towards Nile's, still cautious. Nile grinned and Hanji made a noise of excitement.

The merman's own expression hardened into a wry smile, and suddenly he darted forward. Hanji had been right – he was quick. His sharp nails dug into the skin just below Nile's elbow and dragged down, opening cuts right along his arm before darting back into the water. Nile cursed and stumbled back, and probably would have fallen if Hanji hadn't grabbed his shoulder.

"Shit – that hurts!"

Eren looked at Armin, wide eyed. "This definitely isn't Disney," he said.

Eren wasn't sure what he had been expecting, but for the merman to make an attack like that? He certainly hadn't been expecting that. He rushed to help Nile down, and Hanji quickly closed the lid of the tank, their expression grim.

Nile had been sent to see a doctor. Basic first aid wouldn't cover it, it seemed. Hanji had said that he would need stitches, and although they were fine with stitching up animals, they would prefer Nile to get medical attention from a proper doctor.

They had sent Armin and Eren out of the tank room after, saying that perhaps the merman might relax more with less people in the room. They stayed in there for almost the entire morning. Eren was grateful, to be honest; he was sick of mermaids. Plus, he finally found a moment to work on the report about dolphins he was putting together.

It wasn't until around lunchtime that he went in.

Hanji was in a chair opposite the tank, barely blinking, holding a clipboard and pen.

"Hanji."

"Eren! I told you to stay out of here!"

"You need to get some lunch. It's been hours since you've last eaten, you won't be able to concentrate!"

Armin's words. Eren hadn't even noticed, until Armin told him to go in. "Of course you didn't notice," the blond had said. "But I'm working on an important report right now, so I need you to go in and force them to take a break instead of me."

"Thanks for the concern, Eren, but I'm fi-"

Their stomach rumbled.

"Maybe you're right. Will you take over for me?"

Eren's mind was still on dolphins, but for Hanji's sake he nodded. "Sure. What are you going?"

Hanji sighed. "Not a whole lot. I'm trying to observe him; note any habits or anything unusual he does, to see if he tries to communicate, and make notes of it."

"Has he done anything much?"

"Not a whole lot. Swam around, mostly. Banged the glass, I think he was trying to break it. At one point he started using his tail to try and smash it. For a minute there, I thought he would."

"It's that powerful, huh?"

"Mm. I'd love to see how it reacts to different stimuli, I can't wait to-"

"Hanji?"

"Yeah?"

"Food."

"Oh. Right. Later."

With that, they bustled out of the room, and Eren sat in their chair.

The merman was curled up in one of the corners.

Eren tried to put himself in his position. It must be tough, he knew. To be taken from your natural surroundings while injured, and waking up in a strange place with strange people gawking at you. Still – even if he didn't like Nile much, he was pissed about what had happened. He had a hunch that the merman had understood what he was saying – after all, the way his expression softened as he slowly raised his hand out of the water? It almost like he had been playing along, trying to trick them.

Dickhead.

Why would he attack when he knew Nile had been trying to be peaceful? Eren scowled. He decided he didn't like this creature very much.

He stood from his chair, moving to the tank and clicking in the passcode. He slid the lid open, and sat on the steps, just out of reach should a merman's hand come scratching.

"Oi," he called, to the dark shape he could make out. "Fishboy. Was that really necessary?"

The merman only glared back. Eren had expected as much. "We really weren't trying to hurt you, you know."

The merman turned his back to Eren, and he found himself getting even more pissed off. "Well, listen, Fishboy, but I'm pretty sure you need to eat. What do you eat?"

Nothing. Eren muttered a curse – it was clear he was trying to help, why wouldn't he co-operate? "Should we just give you fish flakes, or something? Feed you the food we give to pet fish?"

A flick of a long tail, and there was a head breaking the surface. Eren would be lying if he said he hadn't jumped.

"Pet fish? You humans really are barbarians."

It took him a second to realize that holy shit, he was talking.

"Holy crap," Eren said, intelligently.

He sounded like a human. It sounded like someone he might pass in the street, or someone who might serve him at Starbucks, or someone he might hear on the radio. But no; that voice was coming from a fucking merman, half fish and half human, which according to the world didn't exist until last week.

It smirked a little, rolling its eyes at Eren's reactions.

"You speak," Eren said, every bit as intelligent as before.

"No shit."

"You curse!"

"And you humans are every bit as stupid as I had heard." He sighed, as if he was some fucking martyr, or something.

"Shut it."

"Why? You were so excited about me speaking a minute ago."

"Yeah? I liked you better when you didn't speak."

"Wow. I'm hurt."

"Not as hurt as Nile's arm after your little stunt. Was that seriously necessary?"

He was arguing with a fish in a tank. His life really had changed over the last week.

The merman's expression darkened. "Was that wrong? I don't care – what would you expect me to do? I've been captured by humans," he spat the word out like a curse, "and you expect me to sit quietly?"

Eren didn't say anything for a minute. "Well, like it or not, you're here now. But we actually don't want to hurt you-"

"No, you just want to keep me here, away from my family and friends and experiment on me-"

"You're quite good at speaking English. Does all of your kind speak it?"

"Please – half of your languages come from ours."

Despite being the one locked up in a tank, he was surprisingly haughty.

"Well listen, while you're here – which will be quite a long while, you'll need to eat, Fishboy."

"Don't call me that."

"Alright, Fins."

"Don't call me that either." It was satisfying to hear him get pissed off, although the whole scenario was pretty bizarre. From where Eren was sitting, he could almost pretend that he was speaking to another human. He could just about ignore the gills, pretend the markings were weird tattoos. But it wasn't a human; if he looked further down, he would be able to see a fishtail. Yet here he was; squabbling with him.

A part of Eren wondered if he had slipped and hit his head, or something."

"What do you want me to call you, then?"

"I have a name."

"Really? Do share."

The merman scowled. "Jean."

Eren snorted. "Isn't that like, a French name?"

Jean's scowl grew. "It doesn't matter."

"Your mother French or something?"

"No – it was a name I heard one day. French tourists on some boat. Heard it, thought it suited me, and chose it for myself."

Eren was having a hard time processing this. "Wait, so – you chose your own name?"

Jean narrowed his eyes. "All mer do."

Eren's grin grew. "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

Jean frowned at him. Eren idly wondered if he would try what he did with Nile, so he slid back a little. "Why? What's your name?"

"Eren."

"Hmph." He gave a haughty laugh. "That's why we choose our own names, when we're old enough; so we're not stuck with ridiculous names our mothers chose for life."

"Don't talk shit about my mother."

Silence.

Jean looked slightly taken aback by the change in Eren's voice, but he tucked the information away, smile turning sly. Yep, Eren had been right in his first judgment. He really didn't like him.

"Listen Fishboy, Jean, whatever. I'll ask you once more. What do you eat?"

"Humans."

Eren froze, eyes widening as he looked down at Jean. Jean jolted forward a little, snapping his teeth.

"Idiot."

The little knot of fear was disappeared, and Eren scowled.

"Fish. We eat fish."

"Cannibals, eh?"

That angered Jean. He moved forward again, brows knotting together. "No we're not!" He was awfully defensive, Eren noted. "You humans eat land animals all the time, don't you?"

"I was kidding. Only yanking your tail. Anyway, fish coming up on the menu."

Strangely enough, that seemed to irritate him the most out of what he said. "Don't bother," he spat, voice almost in a growl.

"Whoa." Eren stood up. "What's your problem?"

Not the best question to ask, granted.

Dark eyes glared up at him. "You want to know about us? You want to learn about the mer?"

This was different – this was him actually offering Eren information. He swallowed dryly, nodding. "Yeah."

"Let me tell you something, then. There's a reason we've hidden from you for hundreds of years. All of the mer – we all hate humans."

self indulgent mer!man au

was kinda iffy about posting it here but it got a good enough response on ao3 so what the hey

this will be multichapter heck ye

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